Busytown by Jolisa Gracewood

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Busytown: A good read

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  • Ian Dalziel,

    That Brion Gysin was a cut-up wasn't he...
    "Writers don't own their words. Since when do words belong to anybody? 'Your very own words,' indeed! And who are you?"
    - 'Cut-Ups Self-Explained' in Brion Gysin
    Let the Mice In *

    (an aside - here's a link to a 1930s animation
    "The Idea" based on Frans Masereel's work - enjoy)

    ... and let's not forget that other famous cut up,
    aka bi-Bill from Tangiers... ( just Beat it!)
    ... as Burroughs said:
    - "When you cut into the present
    the future leaks out."*

    Bibliomancy - is this then the shape of things to come?

    (another aside - the wider discussion's heart is all about content / information, and the filtering thereof. Words are processed in one part of the brain - and images in another, read words are processed differently to spoken words and sung words and verse are processed somewhere else again... the content / understanding lies in the inferential interstices...
    ... a personal space of dappled meaning...)

    - that's all my $5 words used up for the day! : - )

    The discussion on Witi's book, it seems to me, is mostly about intent - and whether it was laziness, laissez-faire or arrogance - whatever the outcome it has been a timely warning to all about fair play and attribution...

    Do unto others as you would have them do unto you - a simple contract...

    (*ps I lifted the quotes above from Wikipedia)

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Jolisa,

    Oh, Ian D, "... a personal space of dappled meaning," indeed. A lovely clearing in which to meet.

    Related (at least tangentially) and delicious reading in the UK papers this weekend:

    Who to praise or blame in theatre, when a play goes right or wrong?

    A stunning review of Zadie Smith's new book about books

    And, speaking of owning authorship, Belle de Jour comes out.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • philipmatthews,

    Incidentally, I didn't think your post on Second Sight was terribly impressive.

    Gee, I would never have guessed. For what it's worth, the post has been radically revised. I've realised, via this discussion, that some things weren't as clear as they should/could have been -- my question being rhetorical or not rhetorical was an obvious one, and I was worried that some might think I was trying to mount a defence of Ihimaera's book and talk down the great contributions Jolisa has made. It was, I acknowledge, something that needed to be a two-way or multi-voiced discussion -- as it's been here -- rather than a stand-alone piece.

    At the risk of being childish (let alone churlish), I would add that the thread got derailey -- there's a Shihad song in there somewhere -- when two external pieces were dragged into the discussion: Cauchi's last week and mine yesterday.

    Anyway, I think this is about the end of it for me.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2007 • 656 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Don't know if we needed the personal abuse.

    Philip: With all due and sincere respect, I would suggest that referring to various participants in this thread as closed minded tools of the PA "clique" was less than entirely helpful. Jus' saying...

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Joe Wylie,

    understanding lies in the inferential interstices...
    ... a personal space of dappled meaning...

    Aah. Nice. Apropos of that, and without meaning to derail from any possibly fruitful Shihad metaphors:

    Pied Beauty

    Glory be to God for dappled things—
    For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
    For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
    Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
    Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
    And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
    All things counter, original, spare, strange;
    Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
    With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
    He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise Him.


    Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Jus' saying...

    ... as someone who has turned occasionally opening his mouth and babbling in fluent Fool into a fine art. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel,

    The piper at the gates of dawn... *

    Pied Beauty

    Joe, G M "lightning" Hopkins nails it!

    Gawd _ _ _ _ _ (insert preferred deity here) forbid
    we ever lose our sense of wonder and awe...

    - shine on you crazy diamond...

    *sadly Syd Barrett burnt his out, but not before invoking the childhood magic of Rat & Mole's meeting with Pan in The Wind in the Willows, in Pink Floyd's debut album in '67. - Simile play perhaps...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    derailey (okay, not a word

    Works for me - and for Philip by the looks.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel,

    on yer bike... or get yer gears off!

    derailey (okay, not a word
    Works for me - and for Philip by the looks.

    does that make someone a derailleur?
    or that other 'creme de cog' Disraeli gears?

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    derailleur

    a popular derailing

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Jolisa,

    a popular derailing

    derigailleur, then? Which is a very useful word, because derailing is practically de rigeur round these parts, and we do it with the smoothness of a well-tuned Shimano.

    (Also, derigailleur, n. 2. what you wear to de graduation ceremony).

    Re-derigailling things: Giovanni spent his weekend crafting this reliably subtle take on things, Philip's revamped post on the subject is a gentle masterpiece of form following function, and the property seminar gurus at the Paepae have weighed in with another angle altogether.

    Also see US academic Margaret Soltan on the subject. (NB while we're being genealogical, it was via her site that I discovered the link to this graphic graphic.)

    Switching gear once again: if I started a PA book club, would anybody come? We'd have to meet in the ether, alas, but the good news is, no bookings or babysitting required, and nobody has to vacuum up the crumbs afterward.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel,

    de rigueur mortis?
    de rigours of de riding
    in de Lycra©
    stiffly...

    fab gear dat regalia
    especially with peaches
    frankly...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • giovanni tiso,

    does that make someone a derailleur?

    Not sure, talk later, I'm off to host The Derailey Factor.

    Switching gear once again: if I started a PA book club, would anybody come?

    It's a genuinely good question. I'm a monstruosly diligent person and as such I am afraid of what a new set of deadlines could do to my week. What kind of turnaround do you have in mind?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Jolisa,

    What kind of turnaround do you have in mind?

    Infinite. Rolling. Overlapping. Centuries rather than weeks.

    In other words, readers' pace. The threads wouldn't disappear and could be returned to ad infinitum.

    Slow thinkers, re-readers and late bloomers welcome, because I am all of the above.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • giovanni tiso,

    Oh, I can do centuries.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Jake Pollock,

    Hmmm. The way this dissertation is going I may need millennia.

    Raumati South • Since Nov 2006 • 489 posts Report

  • Danielle,

    I'm in, as long as you have a thread called 'Short Books, for People Who Can't Concentrate Worth a Damn and Who Are Also Irredeemably Shallow Thinkers'.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report

  • Jake Pollock,

    Oh yeah well if there's gonna be a thread like that I'm definitely in.

    Raumati South • Since Nov 2006 • 489 posts Report

  • Kerry Weston,

    if I started a PA book club, would anybody come?

    I would. Long as it's not too fancy pants.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • philipmatthews,

    (Also, derigailleur, n. 2. what you wear to de graduation ceremony).

    And in other neologism news, Oxford University Press USA has made "unfriend" its word of the year. Sadly, someone describes it as having "lex appeal". Also a few anti-Obama-inspired words in the list and that phrase "tramp stamp" for a tattoo on a woman's lower back. Not a 2009 coinage, that last one. Link here:

    http://blog.oup.com/2009/11/unfriend/

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2007 • 656 posts Report

  • Kyle Matthews,

    if I started a PA book club, would anybody come?

    Also it would need to ban "references to other books/authors which people who read a crapload more than me will have already read". Expecting me to get through one book is enough.

    (I started a 900+ page tome on Bobby Kennedy at New Years, hoping to finish it by Xmas).

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • philipmatthews,

    (I started a 900+ page tome on Bobby Kennedy at New Years, hoping to finish it by Xmas).

    Hope no one's ruined the ending for you.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2007 • 656 posts Report

  • webweaver,

    Count me in - my reading's gone a bit off the boil recently and I'm usually the most voracious reader in my (RL) bookclub. It would be good to talk books in another environment.

    philipm - *snort* very funny!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 332 posts Report

  • Geoff Lealand,

    if I started a PA book club, would anybody come?

    I quite fancy a Magazine Club. I would travel some distance to share the pleasure of a good piece from the Atlantic or Vanity Fair or The Word.

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    And in other neologism news, Oxford University Press USA has made "unfriend" its word of the year.

    Saw that. We'll see what PA readers say in our Word of the Year in a couple of weeks' time.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

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